bases; it is on this account very difficult to separate it from acids, without its retaining a portion of the bases employed for that purpose. The compounds with the alkalies dissolve readily in water, but with difficulty in alcohol; when they are perfectly saturated they contain no trace of carbonic acid, even when bases combined with carbonic acid have been employed, and their taste is purely saccharine, without mixture of alkalinity. The compounds formed with barytes and lime are soluble and are not precipitated by carbonic acid; this saccharine matter forms insoluble compounds with the metallic acids,-when poured into a solution of acetate of lead, a precipitate is formed, which when decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen, forms a black liquid, in which the sulphuret of lead remains suspended; if it were not for this, it would be a good method of obtaining pure saccharine matter the same substance is obtainable from the inspissated liquorice juice; but it is black and cannot be decolorized. It unites not only with acids and bases like the yellow saccharine matter, but also with salts, such as the sulphates of barytes, lime and potash. It precipitates many metallic salts.-Ibid. : SOLUTION IN SULPHURIC ACID WITHOUT OXIDIZEMENT. Vogel of Bayreuth, whilst examining anhydrous sulphuric acid, found that sulphur by being put into contact with it, imparted to it a fine blue colour, which passes to green or brown by the addition of a greater quantity of sulphur. Water precipitates sulphur from these combinations, and heat decomposes them. It appeared probable that the sulphur was simply held in solution by the sulphuric acid, and M. Magnus mentions several analogous cases, which leave no doubt on the subject. Müller of Reichenstein discovered long since that powdered tellurium when sprinkled with concentrated sulphuric acid, was dissolved and became a perfectly transparent fluid of a fine crimson-red colour without observing any evolution of gas, or smell of sulphurous acid. On the addition of a proper quantity of water the tellurium is precipitated in the state of a deep blackish-brown metallic powder. This solution may be kept for a long time in a close vessel, without any alteration; but if it attract moisture from the air, it gradually changes into sulphate of oxide of tellurium, and continually exhales the odour of sulphurous acid. This change is readily effected with the assistance of heat. Selenium is also dissolved by sulphuric acid, the solution is of a very fine green colour, and a few drops of water precipitate the selenium of a red colour. Tellurium and selenium, act like sulphur with sulphuric acid ; except that sulphur requires for its solution that the acid should be anhydrous. These three bodies are oxidized when the sulphuric acid attracts moisture gradually, and exhale an odour of sulphurous acid; but if the water be added quickly, they are then precipitated. Lastly, the three solutions are coloured-that of the sulphur being blue, green or brown, the tellurium crimson-red, and the selenium green. According to Bussy, iodine is also soluble in anhydrous sulphuric acid, and gives it a blueish green colour. It It follows from these facts that sulphuric acid has the property not only of dissolving compound bodies without oxidizing them, as Berzelius has shown with respect to the metallic cyanurets, but it dissolves some simple bodies, such as sulphur and selenium, for the oxides of which it has no affinity, and also tellurium, with the oxide of which it forms a crystallizable compound.-Ibid. VEGETABLE ALBUMEN AND GELATINE. Beccaria discovered, as is well known, a peculiar glutinous principle in wheat, which is obtained by working the flour in water, and which he called gluten. Taddei has given an account of two new peculiar principles which he supposes he has found in gluten, and which he has named gliadine and zymome. The other kinds of grain yield no principle similar to the gluten of Beccaria. But Einhof, in his remarkable analysis of rye, barley and pease, has shown that these seeds contain a substance analogous to the gluten of wheat, but which dissolves in water during the manipulation. Having had occasion to make some experiments on the gluten of Beccaria, I found that Taddei had only given two new names to the known and common principles of plants, particularly the seeds of the gramineæ. If the gluten of Beccaria be boiled with alcohol, as long as this fluid grows turbid on cooling, a considerable portion of the mass is separated; if water be added to this spirituous solution, and the mixture be distilled, the watery fluid remaining in the retort deposits on cooling a coherent glutinous matter, perfectly resembling gluten. This is vegetable gelatin, the gluten, of the same nature as the matter separated, according to Einhof's method, from rye and barley. The matter insoluble in alcohol, whilst moist is semitransparent, and so much like animal albumen, that it is impossible to distinguish by its appearance only, that it is vegetable albumen, or, as Wahlenberg calls it, with good reason, the white of grain. Caustic alkali, when the solution is weak and cold, dissolves vegetable albumen, and leaves the filaments of starch which it has retained. The following are the principal properties of vegetable albumen. This matter, obtained after the evaporation of the alcohol from the remaining liquor, is of a yellowish gray colour, adhesive, glutinous, and very elastic ; it has no taste, but it has a peculiar smell. In a dry atmosphere it becomes shining on the surface, and gradually dries into a mass of a deep yellow colour, and is perfectly transparent, resembling dry animal matter. It dissolves in alcohol, and the solution is of a pale yellow colour, and remains after the evaporation of the spirit, in the form of transparent yellow varnish. When vegetable gelatine is treated with cold alcohol, a milky fluid is obtained, and a viscid white matter remains. This matter is not vegetable gelatine; it is dissolved by boiling, but the liquor becomes milky on cooling. If the vegetable gelatine be dissolved with heat in weak spirit of wine, it precipitates on cooling, retaining its glutinous property; it dissolves in vinegar, leaving a white viscid matter, which the acid does not dissolve even when boiling, but which partly passes through the filter. When precipitated from its solution in vinegar by an alkali, it retains its glutinous state. With the mineral acids it forms a glutinous compound, insoluble in water, until the excess of acid is removed, and it is then as perfectly precipitated from this solution as from that in vinegar, when more acid is added. The phosphoric acid is however an exception, for it does not precipitate the acid solutions. Vegetable gelatine also combines with the caustic alkalies, and when the gelatine is in excess, a solution is obtained, which is so perfectly neutral that no alkaline taste remains. It gives by evaporation a transparent mass, which is again soluble in water, which leaves undissolved the greater part of the viscid principle. Ammonia and lime-water precipitate vegetable gelatine from solution in acids, and redissolve it; but if it be aggregated these alkalies do not dissolve it, or at least the solution is slowly effected. With the earths and the metallic oxides, vegetable albumen forms insoluble compounds; the alkaline carbonates precipitate vegetable albumen from solution in the caustic alkalies or in the acids. The precipitate is a compound of the gelatine with the alkali, which without the liquid is not gelatinous. The persulphate of iron does not precipitate vegetable gelatine from solution in vinegar. On the contrary, it is precipitated from its acid solutions by the ferrocyanate of potash, in a hard, white, semitransparent mass, which is deposited on the sides of the vessels. It is also precipitated from solution, either in acid or alkali, by the permuriate of mercury and tincture of galls. The gelatine, in the solid state, is tanned in the two solutions, exactly like animal gelatine. The viscid principle, which has been several times mentioned, has not had its properties examined. The best method of separating it is to treat vegetable gelatine with concentrated vinegar, and when the mass is thoroughly penetrated, to mix it in the cold with weak alcohol, which dissolves the acetate of gelatine, and the undissolved matter is also to be washed with cold weak spirit. It dries into a colourless transparent body, which yields ammonia by distillation. It swells in alcohol and becomes viscid; when heated in it, solution takes place, but it is precipitated on cooling. Vegetable albumen, when dissolved to saturation in weak alkaline solutions, possesses in so great a degree the properties of white of egg, that, as is well known, it has been mistaken for it. Its solution in potash, when the latter is not in excess, has no alkaline taste whatever. It coagulates slightly by ebullition, but it is generally retained by the alkali; it combines with acids. The solution when perfectly saturated is soluble in water, but an excess of acid precipitates it; vinegar and phosphoric acid, however, are exceptions to this, for they may be added in large quantity, without occasioning precipitation. Before treatment with potash, vegetable albumen when boiled in alcohol dissolves sparingly in vinegar or phosphoric acid; but when boiled with these acids, it forms a transparent jelly, which is colourless and bulky. With permuriate of mercury, tincture of galls, and ferrocyanate of potash, it acts like animal albumen. The French chemists have considered the azotized principle contained in emulsive seeds as analogous to cheese in milk. Soubeiran has shown that this principle in almonds, similar to that which has been been described, possesses the properties of white of egg, but not those of cheese; and Payen and Henry, who had considered the results obtained by Soubeiran as opposed to theirs, are convinced by new trials, that this principle cannot be considered as caseum, but that it ought to be called albumino-caseous. I add, that according to its properties, it is rarely identical with vegetable albumen.-Ibid. BERZELIUS. ANHYDROUS CRYSTALS OF SULPHATE OF Soda. In the Number for April of the Royal Institution Journal, Mr. Faraday makes the following observations with respect to this salt :-If a drop of a solution of sulphate of soda be placed upon a glass plate and allowed to evaporate spontaneously, it will leave crystals which may be distinguished by their form and alternate efflorescence as being the salt in question. Most of the potash and soda salts may be distinguished as to their base by such an experiment. They are easily converted into sulphates by a drop or two of sulphuric acid and ignition; and then being dissolved and tried as above, will yield crystals which may be known by their forms, and more especially by their efflorescence if of soda, and their unchangeable state if of potash. This test is, however, in some circumstances liable to uncertainty, arising from a curious cause. If the drop of solution on the glass be allowed to evaporate at common temperatures, then the efflorescence takes place, and the distinction is so far perfect; but if the glass plate with the drop upon it be placed upon a warm part of a sand-bath or hot iron-plate, or in any other situation of a certain temperature considerably beneath the boiling point of the solution, the crystals which are left upon evaporation of the fluid are smaller in quantity, more similar in appearance to sulphate of soda, and finally do not effloresce. Upon examining the cause of this difference I found they were anhydrous, consequently incapable of efflorescing, and indeed, exactly of the same nature as the crystals obtained by Dr. Thomson from certain hot saturated leys.-Ann. Phil. N. S. xx. 201. Hence it would appear, that a mere difference in the temperature at which a solution of sulphate of soda is evaporated, will cause the formation of hydrated or anhydrous crystals at pleasure, and that whether the quantity of the solution be large or small. This indeed might have been expected from what takes place when hydrated crystals of sulphate of soda are carefully melted; a portion dissolves, and a portion separates, the latter in an anhydrous state. (Quarterly Journal, xix. p. 153.) I find that, if it were desirable, crystallized anhydrous sulphate of soda might easily be prepared for the market; though, as the pure salt is now but little used, it is not likely this condensed form will be required. Whenever a salt of soda is to be distinguished from one of potash in the manner above described, this effect of temperature must be carefully guarded against. CASEOUS OXIDE, AND CASEIC ACID. The results obtained by Proust relative to the substance produced by the fermentation of cheese, have been described and examined by M. Henri M. Henri Braconnot. The substance which Proust distinguished as caseous oxide, he shows to have no claim to such a title, and proposes to call it aposepedine, as being produced by putrefaction. It also appears to be produced in certain diseases. The properties which Proust has assigned to caseic acid, belong, according to M. Braconnot, to various contaminating substances, none of which have any title to be considered as a particular acid. The substances present are free acetic acid; aposepedine; animal matter, soluble in water and insoluble in alcohol (ozmazome); animal matter, soluble in both water and alcohol; a yellow, acrid, fluid oil; a brown resin; acetate and muriate of potash, and traces of acetate of ammonia. On examining the fatty matter of cheese, Braconnot found it to consist of margarate of lime with margaric and oleic acids; the butter having undergone the same kind of change during the fermentation of cheese, as that produced when it is saponified by the action of alkalies or other bodies.-Ann. de Chim. xxxvi, p. 159. RIB OF A WHALE FOUND IN THE DILUVIUM OF BRIGHTON A short time since some labourers employed in collecting flints from the beach near Kemp Town (a new suburb erecting to the east of Brighton), observed the extremity of a large bone projecting from the base of the cliff. They immediately broke off a portion of it, but the remainder was fortunately so impacted in the rock that they were unable to remove it without more labour than they were willing to bestow. Intelligence of the discovery having reached Mr. Mantell of Castle Place, Lewes, he visited the spot, and assisted by the labourers, succeeded in making an excavation to the extent of three or four yards in the cliff, and completely exposed the bone without injuring it in the slightest degree; but unfortunately in attempting to remove it subsequently, it fell to pieces*. This fragment of bone (for it evidently was but a small portion of the original) measured nine feet in length, the piece destroyed by the workmen was estimated at about three feet, so that the specimen when first discovered must have been twelve feet long; from its slight degree of curvature it could not have been less than thirty feet when entire. The circumference of the largest extremity was thirty-four inches, and the bone gradually diminished in size, terminating obtusely. The surface was almost flat on the inner side of the curvature, and convex on the outer, corresponding in this respect with the ribs of the common whale. From a mere fragment of bone, however gigantic, it is of course impossible to decide positively as to the animal to which it belonged; yet as this example was too enormous to have belonged to any terrestrial animal, and not only in form but also in structure bore a close analogy to the rib of a whale, it may with but little hesitation be consi dered as the sternal portion of a rib of that animal. According to * A fragment five feet long was, however, removed to Mr. Mantell's museum. Mr. |